Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) refers to writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir presented as genuine.

History

Literary forgery may involve the work of a famous author whose writings have an established intrinsic, as well as monetary, value. In an attempt to gain the rewards of such a reputation, the forger often engages in two distinct activities. The forger produces a writing which resembles the style of the known reputable author to whom the fake is to be attributed. The forger may also fake the physical alleged original manuscript. This is less common, as it requires a great deal of technical effort, such as imitating the ink and paper. The forger then claims that, not only is the style of writing the same, but also that the ink and paper are of the kind or type used by the famous author. Other common types of literary forgery may draw upon the potential historical cachet and novelty of a previously undiscovered author.

Literary forgery has a long history. Onomacritus (c. 530 - 480 BCE) is among the most ancient known literary forgers. He invented prophecies, which he ascribed to the bard Musaeus.

In the 3rd century AD, a certain Septimius produced what appeared to be a Latin translation of an eyewitness account to the Trojan War by Dictys of Crete. In the letter of dedication, the translator gave additional credence to the document by claiming the Greek original had come to light during Nero's reign when Dictys' tomb was opened by an earthquake and his diary was discovered. Septimius then claimed the original had been handed to the governor of Crete, Rutilius Rufus (a name which no other records corroborate), who gave the diary to Nero during his tour of Greece in 66/67 CE. According to historian Miriam Griffin, such bogus and romantic claims to antiquity were not uncommon at the time.

One of the longest lasting literary forgeries is by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th-6th century Syrian mystical writer who claimed to be a disciple of Paul the Apostle. Five hundred years later, Abelard expressed doubts about the authorship, but it was not until after the Renaissance that there was general agreement that the attribution of the work was false. In the intervening 1,000 years, the writings had much theological influence.

Fake memoirs

The genre of false and deceptive autobiography or fake memoirs has seen the rise of misery lit books, in which the author claims to have suffered illness, abuse, and/or drug abuse during his or her upbringing. A recent example is a story about a young girl who was raised in a gangland culture in Los Angeles involving drugs, forced sex and criminality. The author, Margaret Seltzer, has been exposed as a fraud by her elder sister. In reality, she has lived a middle-class life without trauma, and received a good education (which also included a course in creative writing).

Danny Santiago, author of Famous All Over Town, published a novel in which he depicts life through the eyes of a young Hispanic boy growing up in East Los Angeles. The novel won the Rosenthal Award for Literary Achievement in 1984, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When suspicion arose about the true identity of Danny Santiago, investigation revealed that the writer was actually a middle- to older-aged Caucasian male writing from the standpoint of a young Latino American boy. He received criticism from the literary community, and gave up writing for good.

James Frey, another author chastised for "forging" his memoir, published A Million Little Pieces, a memoir about his struggle with drug addiction and his journey through the inner working of the legal system and rehabilitation. The truth about his "imagined escapades" eventually came to light when his close family and friends revealed that he had actually never been a drug addict or incarcerated. Frey eventually faced more than 10 class action lawsuits, including negligence, false advertising, and breach of contract. At the heart of each suit was an allegation of fraud.

During the Victorian Era, women were not afforded the same literary opportunities as men. The only way for Victorian women to publish their work was by using a pseudonym or a pen name to avoid dismissal by male critics. George Eliot, one of the leading women writers of the Victorian Era, and the author of renowned novels including Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) and Adam Bede (1859), used a pen name. Her legal name was Mary Anne (or Mary Ann) Evans. One scholar claims Eliot was forced (rather than chose) to write under another name.